Facebooking Judge Schoonover faces state investigation on variety of complaints

Circuit Judge Linda Schoonover, who works in Sanford.

April 21, 2014|By Rene Stutzman, Staff Writer

SANFORD — Circuit Judge Linda Schoonover came under fire in a public way when an appeals court ordered her off a case because she sent a Facebook "friend" request to a Winter Springs woman whose big-money divorce case she was about to decide.

But long before that January ruling, several people had quietly filed formal complaints against the judge, asking the Florida Supreme Court to punish her or remove her from office.

She is, lawyers and litigants complain, emotional, plays favorites and either doesn't know the law or chooses not to follow it.

"She's got too much power and lacks the ability to control herself," said Russell Hershkowitz, an Altamonte Springs attorney and one of at least 17 lawyers whose cases Schoonover is now barred from hearing.

At least five people have filed formal complaints about her with the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the state agency that investigates allegations of wrongdoing by judges.

Schoonover, 59, of Longwood, would not answer questions from the Orlando Sentinel.

Her attorney, Greg Eisenmenger of Viera, described her as a hard-working judge who is the target of criticism because she unseated Clayton Simmons, a popular former chief judge of Seminole-Brevard, in a 2010 election.

Said Eisenmenger, "I have the utmost respect for the work that she does."

The allegations against her are untrue, he said. Video-recorded hearings and statements from court personnel indicate she keeps her emotions in check, he said. She has recused herself from cases when she knows one of the parties involved, he said, and she is "extremely well versed in the area of domestic law."

Court records include complaints about Schoonover, far more wide-ranging than the formal complaints filed with the JQC. They generally fall into two categories: 1) erratic, unprofessional behavior and 2) making improper rulings and doing things that she has no right to do.

"She's in over her head. She doesn't know what she's doing," said one of her harshest critics, Harry Roen, a Winter Park attorney, also one of those 17 attorneys whose cases she is now prohibited from handling.

Among the things Schoonover has been criticized for:

•Punishing a Winter Springs real-estate agent with an unduly harsh property and debt-sharing divorce ruling after the woman did not respond to a Facebook "friend" request.

•Refusing to listen to evidence from a litigant who annoyed her.

•Repeatedly and improperly ordering litigants to one specific psychologist — Andrew Pittington of Lake Mary — an act that lawyers and other judges says she has no authority to do.

•Serving as her own lawyer in a property dispute with a niece and nephew while she was a judge, something prohibited by Florida judicial canons.

Eisenmenger would not discuss most of those allegations, saying they involve pending court cases. Others he described as non-issues.

Pittington, the psychologist, said he has no business ties to the judge, adding, "I don't have a good explanation as to why" she pressed his services onto litigants.

He has done nothing wrong, he said, and the number of cases Schoonover has sent him has slowed dramatically.

Before her election in 2010, Schoonover was a longtime board-certified Seminole County divorce lawyer who was well-regarded by some, disliked by others.

On a Sentinel candidate questionnaire that year, she wrote: "I have the experience and the track record to maintain the trust and confidence of the public. I have the passion, experience, skills and dedication to improve the court system."

But shortly after she began work as a judge in January 2011 lawyers began complaining.

Then-Chief Judge Alan Dickey signed an administrative order, removing non-divorce cases from her docket, things such as property disputes and personal-injury cases, leaving her to concentrate on the area of law she had spent her career refining: divorces and custody matters.

Eisenmenger said that was likely to rebalance the judge's caseload — not because of poor job performance.

Together, Dickey, former chief Judge Preston Silvernail and now-Chief Judge John M. Harris, have signed orders, barring Schoonover from hearing the cases of 17 lawyers, most solo practitioners or those who work in small firms.

That is an extraordinarily high number, said Simmons, the judge she unseated. He served twice as long as Schoonover — 7 years to her 3 1/2 — and had two such orders, he said.

Retired Circuit Judge Joe Baker, who served Orange and Osceola counties for 25 years, said, "It never happened to me."

Eisenmenger said 17 "is not particularly surprising or shocking to me." He also said Schoonover was not consulted before chief judges entered those orders.

Schoonover is about to get a new assignment. On July 1 she'll be reassigned from divorce court to juvenile court.